


The Tauntaun Solution

by Fallynleaf



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: M/M, Sharing Body Heat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-13
Updated: 2014-01-13
Packaged: 2018-01-08 16:01:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1134672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fallynleaf/pseuds/Fallynleaf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The heater isn't working in Troy and Abed's apartment, so Abed suggests that they share their body heat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Tauntaun Solution

**Author's Note:**

> A companion piece for [Circumstantial Lesbianism](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1243633). Can also be read separately.

"Abed?"

"Yes?"

"It-it's c-cold," Troy whispered. "What if we get frostbite? What if _I'm getting frostbite right now_? Abed! What does frostbite look like?"

"The tips of your fingers turn blue," Abed said from his bunk below Troy's.

"Oh. Then does it spread all over the rest of your body? Is that how the Blue Man Group was made?" Troy's voice oscillated from panicked to fascinated, then back again. "Abed, I don't want to drop out of college and perform at concerts! I don't even know how to play the drum!"

"Let me see your hands," Abed said.

"But that would require taking them out from under the blanket," Troy said.

"Troy, did Reggie not take a risk when he opened the door to the Booth, thus exposing both himself and the Inspector to Thoraxis' radiation, but allowing Lily's life to be saved?" Abed said.

"Yeah, I guess he did," Troy said. "Maybe some risks are worth taking..." He took a deep breath. Squeezed his eyes shut, even though it didn't really make much of a difference in the dark.

Then he removed his hand from the blanket and dangled it over the edge of his bunk, biting back a scream of agony as the cold reached to claim his hand. "Abed, make it fast! I can't stand the cold much longer!" Troy said. He started to cry, then stopped in fear of his tears freezing his eyeballs and screwing up his sight forever.

All of the sudden, there was something warm against his palm. Abed's fingers rubbed heat back into his hand, and Troy stopped whimpering.

"It's not frostbite," Abed said.

"Thank god," Troy said, exhaling sharply in relief. He squeezed Abed's hand and received an answering pressure. He could almost feel ice starting to form on his arm, however, as much as he wanted to keep holding Abed's hand, so he withdrew his arm back into the safety of the blanket and waited for it to slightly dethaw.

There was silence for a bit. Troy shivered under his blanket, tucking his fingers into his armpits because that's what they always did in movies.

"I think I have an idea," Abed said.

"Let's do it. I don't care what it is, it can't get any colder than this," Troy said.

"Then I think we should climb into the proverbial tauntaun, so to speak," Abed said.

"The bottom bunk is probably warmer, right? 'Cause it's all insulated and stuff," Troy said.

"The difference is negligible, but it's probably the easier solution," Abed said quickly. "Bring all available provisions. We're abandoning the base."

"I'll see you on the other side, buddy," Troy said, swallowing. He pulled the blankets tight around him.

"Troy," Abed said suddenly.

"Yeah?"

"Good luck."

Troy struggled into a sitting position. By now, he resembled a burrito with two or three capes. He shuffled over to the edge of the bed, feeling the cold already eating through layers and layers of fabric.

Troy took another breath, then he tossed himself sideways over the edge. His muffled scream was cut short when he slammed into the ground with a grunt, blankets streaming after him and catching at the corners of the mattresses. After a moment's recovery, he started to inch over to the bottom bunk. "Abed," he panted.

"Up here," Abed said. "It's open, come quickly."

Troy leapt upright and slipped out of all of the blankets. He held onto them as he sprinted the two steps to the bed, then dove into the opening formed by Abed lifting the covers high, briefly exposing herself to the cold in consequence. Troy tossed the clump of blankets onto the bed to sort out later, then curled up into Abed and shivered.

"Better?" Abed asked.

"Loads," Troy said, adjusting his position so that he wasn't quite clinging on to Abed for dear warmth. "Should've thought about the tauntaun thing earlier. Though I don't think even Hoth was _this_ cold."

"The landlord did warn us that sometimes the heater doesn't work," Abed said.

"I guess I thought I could fix it."

"Can't you?" Abed asked.

"If it was an air conditioner, then yeah. But it's a heater. Turns out heaters _don't_ work exactly the same way as air conditioners, except reversed." Troy snuggled a bit closer, resting his head against Abed's shoulder. Abed's arm slid around him. It was warm. In fact, Troy thought that this was probably the warmest he's ever been without being _hot_. Probably had something to do with the pile of blankets on top of them both.

At some point, they drifted off to sleep.

They woke up slightly sweltering.

"Is the heat back on?" Troy mumbled, opening his eyes.

Abed appeared to still be asleep, his breaths moving soft and regular. Troy stared at him for a bit, smiling. Then he realized that they were probably running late for class. "Hey, Abed, wake up," he said, gently shaking hm.

Abed's eyes opened. He blinked. "Good morning, Troy," he said.

It took a minute for both of them to extricate themselves from the blankets and from each other. The fabric of their pajamas stuck to everything.

 

* * *

 

 

The next night, it happened again. Or rather, they took precautionary measures so that in case the extreme cold happened again, they would be prepared. Again, Troy crawled into bed with Abed, wrapped his arms around him, exchanged a few words, then fell asleep. He couldn't help it. Warm things made him sleepy, and Abed was the warmest thing of all.

Soon they dropped any pretenses about the cold being the reason they were sharing a bed. Eventually, the heater started working reliably again, and then they moved to the less-insulated top bunk. It was the longest, best sleepover Troy had ever had in all of his life.

One day, Annie said to him over breakfast: "Hey, Troy, you haven't been on a date in awhile, have you?"

"Not interested, Annie, sorry," Troy said.

"Fraternization with roommates is prohibited in the contract under section nine, clause three," Abed put in helpfully.

"I wasn't asking because of that!" Annie said, offended. "I was just curious."

"Well, don't be. I believe the words are: none of your business," Troy said. He got up and put his cereal bowl in the sink. The truth was, Troy had kind of forgotten about going out with girls. It had slipped pretty low on his list of priorities. And if he was honest about it, he wasn't all _that_ into the idea of sex. Troy's favorite part about sex was the cuddling, and he was already getting that with Abed every night.

A few days later, Troy woke drowsily to the sound of Annie's voice saying: "I think I left my purple pen in the blanket fort. Can I come in, guys?" There was a pause. "You _are_ awake, right? We have class in forty minutes."

Troy mumbled something in response. He shuffled over onto his other side. Abed shifted slightly beside him, one arm draped over Troy.

"Alright. That's it. No second chances," Annie called. "I'm coming in."

The curtain of blankets lifted. Annie's head came through, followed by the rest of her. "-And oh my god!" She said suddenly. "Um, wrong room, keep my pen, I'll come back for it later," she squeaked, making a hasty retreat.

"What's her problem?" Troy said drowsily to Abed. "It's like she's never seen... two straight dude friends sleeping in the same bed." He trailed off, his eyes opening wide.

Abed was very awake. So was Troy now, strangely enough.

"I never said it out loud before," Troy said, his eyes still open wide. "Dude, does this mean we're..." He couldn't say it.

"Gay?" Abed filled in.

They lay there for a second longer. Then both of them leapt out of the bed and started to get dressed, standing as far away from each other as possible as they did so.

Annie greeted them while also managing to not look directly at either of them as she finished getting ready for class. "Hi, guys!" She said, false brightness in her voice. "So I guess section three, clause nine or whatever has some additional clause about gay relationships! That's good! I didn't know! I didn't read it, actually," she said, her voice temporarily falling. "Oh god, did I just admit that? Haha, I don't know what I'm saying! I'm going to shut up now." She ended on a whisper.

Troy's mind was stuck on a loop of his and Abed's voices repeating: _Does this mean we're... gay?_ He tuned Annie out as he went through all of the motions of starting his day. He noticed for the first time that Lucky Charms was an exceptionally rainbow cereal. Then proceeded to have a minor panic that _maybe eating Lucky Charms every day turns you gay_? But then he realized that Annie often ate it with him, and she hadn't started kissing Britta, or anything, as far as he knew.

Abed didn't say a word the entire rest of the morning. Which turned into Abed not saying a word all day, a fact that got the study group concerned.

"Abed, honey? Are you alright?" Shirley asked. "Are we all in stop-motion again?"

"No, we're not in stop-motion this time," Troy said weakly.

"Do you know what's going on, Troy?" Shirley asked. "Because if you know anything, you better tell us."

"I think Annie broke Abed again," Troy said.

Annie made an offended noise.

"Annie?" Shirley asked. "Do you know anything about this?"

"I don't know as much as _Troy_ ," Annie said darkly. "But roommates don't tell their other roommates' secrets."

"Hey, I thought we agreed no more secrets," Britta said. "You guys made me tell you the name of the last guy I slept with. And what time it happened. Down to the minute."

"That's because the last guy was Jeff," Annie said. "And it happened in this room. So it's important to know, so that I know which of my pens I have to sanitize and which ones are uncontaminated."

"You think I _contaminated_ this room?" Britta said. "Alright. I'll tell you exactly where I-"

"Okay, that's enough," Jeff said, setting down his phone. "Britta, shut up. Annie, stop being nosy. Same with you, Shirley. Troy, figure out what's wrong with Abed and fix him. And where is Pierce?"

"Why is _Pierce_ so important?" Annie asked.

"Because he has the last piece of our diorama. And I just want to finish this and go home and take a nap."

"Hey, guys," Pierce said, walking in. "You'll never guess what happened to the last piece of our diorama."

Jeff groaned and sunk his face into his hands.

 

* * *

 

 

"Okay. _That_ was the last piece of the diorama," Jeff said, stepping back and folding his arms. "Now I'm going to go home, and-"

"Jeff! You can't leave until we've figured out what's wrong with Abed," Shirley said.

Everyone turned and looked at Abed, who simply sat in his chair and stared at some nondescript point in the distance, blinking occasionally. Britta waved her hand in front of his face and he had no visible reaction.

"I thought that was Troy's job," Jeff said.

"Well, I didn't find out, okay?" Troy muttered. Which wasn't true, exactly. He _did_ know what was wrong with Abed. He just didn't know how to fix it. He didn't know how to fix the uncomfortable balled-up mess of feelings in his own stomach, either.

"Knock, knock!" A familiar singsong voice called from the hallway. The Dean stepped through the door dressed in green, thigh-high heeled boots. A bright pink wig sitting atop his head had curled ringlets that brushed against his shoulders, and he wore a green dress patterned with shiny pink flower decals. "Hello, study group! And Jeffery," he added, reaching over to massage Jeff's shoulder. Jeff reached up and removed the Dean's hand.

"Why are you dressed like a flower? It's winter," Jeff said.

"And I," the Dean proclaimed, "am the ray of light in your dark night, Jeffery." He gave a small twirl.

"Why are you here?" Jeff asked flatly.

"Because Greendale just received a bomb threat."

"What?!"

Annie started to scream. Troy thought he might join her.

"Shh! Shhhh!" The Dean hushed. "Stop panicking! This is exactly why I didn't want to put out an announcement! I didn't want people to panic!"

"You're telling me this _isn't_ a good reason to panic?" Shirley asked.

"No! It's not!" The Dean said. "The last time this happened, everyone panicked and we didn't get people evacuated in time!"

"The Great Stink Bomb of '02," Troy breathed. "Put classes on hold for an entire week until the school could be aired out. Effected students were in a near coma for three days." He glanced over at Abed, waiting for Abed to add in some additional information or make a movie reference. Then he remembered. He swallowed and looked away again.

"So you want us to find the bomb," Jeff stated.

"Yes, very good, Jeffery!" the Dean said.

"How do you expect us to do that?"

"I don't know! I'm not in the study group. That's for you guys to find out. I have 100% confidence in you!" The Dean said. He turned to leave the room. "Oh, and the note says the bomb is set to go off in an hour. Good luck!" the Dean turned with a flourish and strode out of the room.

"An hour?!" Annie squeaked.

"Jeff, can I ask you a question, man to lawyer?" Pierce asked.

"What?" Jeff snapped.

"How do you write a will?"

"You're old and you don't have a will?" Annie asked.

"Always thought I'd have time to write it on my deathbed when it could cause the most interpersonal drama," Pierce said.

"Okay, you know what I propose?" Jeff said. Everyone turned to look at him. "I propose the seven of us evacuate and let this school clean up its own messes for once in our lives. Besides, I've got a midterm in two days, and if school is closed for a week, I can put off cramming for it."

"Jeff, how can you be so selfish?" Britta asked. "If we're the last thing that stands between this school and the nastiest stink bomb since '02, then we have to at least attempt to do _something_."

"Okay. I'll help look for the bomb for fifty minutes. Then I'm getting into my car and am driving very far away."

"Fine. Since you clearly care so much about Greendale enough to put the entire school after your own safety," Britta said. "I, for one, am either finding this bomb or I'm going down with it!"

"Yeah!" Annie said. She winced. "Oh, wait, I have a presentation tomorrow. If I miss it, I'll lose my chance of achieving class valedictorian."

"Well, _I_ have a presentation tomorrow, and I don't give a damn!" Britta proclaimed. "Who's with me?"

 _"Forty-five minutes until detonation_ ," an electronic voice said. Everyone glanced in Abed's direction. His phone sat on the desk, a timer steadily ticking downwards to their destruction.

"The app _did_ come in handy," Troy said softly. He cleared his voice and looked away. "I mean," he said, his voice growing dull, "We should probably get started looking, shouldn't we?"

"Where would someone place a stink bomb to do the most damage?" Annie wondered. Her eyes stretched wide with a realization. "The air ventilation shafts!" She exclaimed.

"Let's go," Jeff said, getting out of his chair. "We're finding the source, getting this thing taken care of, and then  I'm getting out of here. I have a nice nap waiting for me at home."

"How many potential sources could there even be?" Britta said. "The system is pretty connected, isn't it? Since people and monkeys can use it to pretty much get anywhere all over the school."

"The ventilation shafts stem from two places," Pierce said.

"What? How do _you_ know?" Jeff asked.

Pierce pointed at the section of wall beside them in the hallway. A section of wall upon which was a detailed map of Greendale, more for the decorative purpose of display than for the purpose of actually helping anyone find their way around the school.

" _Forty minutes until detonation_."

"Let's split up," Jeff said. "We only have thirty minutes to find this thing."

"We should go together!" Shirley said to Annie!

"And Jeff can come with us-" Annie started to say.

"Hey!" Pierce cut in. "That's not fair! You always get to go with Jeff. I'm calling dibs this time."

"Alright. How about Troy and Abed go with you, Annie," Jeff said. "I'll go with Britta and Pierce."

"Oh, so you can make out with Britta during _this_ emergency, too?" Annie said.

"Why am I always with Abed?" Troy muttered.

"Because you're _friends_ with Abed, remember?" Jeff said.

" _Thirty-seven minutes until detonation_."

"We're splitting up by gender. Boys and girls, okay?" Jeff said, sighing. "The girls can take the maintenance room on the east side, and we'll take the one on the west."

"Fine," Annie said, annoyed.

"Then let's go!" Britta said. She started down the hallway at a brisk walk. Annie and Shirley followed a step behind her.

Jeff started in the opposite direction at a much slower pace. Abed matched his speed absently. Troy turned towards Pierce, who walked beside him. "Hey, Pierce?" he said quietly. "Can I ask you something?"

"How many women did I have sex with in restroom bathrooms? That's a difficult-" Pierce started.

"No! How do you know if someone is, well... gay," Troy asked.

Pierce held up his hands and made some illustrative motions.

"Are you just clarifying what I'm trying to ask or are you answering it?" Troy asked. He started to imagine actually doing the sex acts Pierce was illustrating with his hands and his brain immediately shut down.

"The person you really should ask is Jeff," Pierce said. "He knows it _intimately_ , if you know what I mean." He whispered.

"Uh, thanks," Troy said slowly. He walked a bit faster and caught up with Jeff.

"Hey, wait for me!" Pierce called.

"Jeff," Troy started. "How do you know if someone is gay?"

"They enjoy having sex with other men," Jeff said. "Why are you asking?"

Troy's face fell. For the first time in possibly ever, Pierce and Jeff had given him the exact same answer to a question. He wished that he could ask Abed. Abed always had a different answer.

" _Twenty minutes until detonation_."

"Well, we're here," Jeff said. "But the door's probably locked. Oh well, it was worth a shot." At some point, he had dug his phone out of his pocket and had started to type a text.

Pierce walked up and tried the door. It swung open.

"Oh, that's right," Jeff said, glancing up from his phone. "We go to Greendale. How could I forget? Why would _anyone_ lock the door to a room that contains an important maintenance unit?"

Upon entering the room, it became very clear that they had indeed found what they were looking for.

The stink bomb was a complicated contraption that was attached to the air handling unit with layers and layers of duct tape. Troy approached it hesitantly, afraid to touch it in fear of accidentally detonating it.

"No one here happens to know how to defuse a bomb, I take it," Jeff said.

"I've defused a couple bombs in my time," Pierce said, reaching towards it. Jeff slapped his hand away.

"Troy, Abed? Do either of you know how?"

"I failed high school Chemistry," Troy said in a small voice. Abed said nothing. He stood right outside the room and did not make any movement to enter it.

" _Fifteen minutes until detonation_."

"We got here five minutes ahead of schedule," Jeff said. "But I guess there's nothing I can do, so I'm heading home. Anyone want to come with me? Pierce? Abed?"

Pierce blinked. Then he walked out of the room after Jeff. "So, Jeff, about my will... Are you free today?" he said. Jeff's loud sigh faded as he turned the corner of the hallway.

The door to the maintenance room slid shut behind Pierce. Abed's face was framed in the small window set into the wood.

"Looks like it's just us, Abed," Troy said, a lump in his throat. "And I really need you to be here right now. Or, if _you_ can't be here, then I need _someone_ to be, okay?"

Abed lifted a hand, his fingers parted in the middle, and pressed it flat against the glass. His lips moved. Troy recognized the reference and his mind filled in the words. " _Spock,_ " Abed had said.

Troy walked over and placed his hand over Abed's on the other side of the glass. "Ship... out of danger?" he asked, settling into Kirk's role.

Abed's lips moved again. " _Yes_."

Troy started to say the _"needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few_ " line, but the words stuck in his throat. "Abed," he said instead, "We're not doing that movie. Let's do a different reference. One where neither of us dies, okay?" Troy pressed harder against the glass, aching to feel the warmth of Abed's hand instead. But he couldn't. If they were going to stay friends after this, there would always have to be a layer of glass between them.

"How about Inspector Spacetime?" Troy continued. "We could be Reggie and the Inspector during the Thoraxis plot arc with the radiation and stuff. When Reggie opens the door and... takes a risk." Troy's eyelids stretched wide with a sudden, staggering realization.

Troy stepped back just as the door swung open and Abed entered the room.

" _Ten minutes until detonation._ "

"Um, I guess we should really get on that, shouldn't we," Troy said, scratching his head. This time, he was nervous to meet Abed's eyes for a different reason. "I can't defuse it. Can you?" he asked.

"No," Abed said. Troy's face stretched into a wide smile. It felt unbelievably good to hear Abed again. "But we don't have to defuse it. We just have to prevent it from entering the ventilation shaft," Abed continued.

Troy opened the air handling unit. His smile fell. "It's attached to the part that's a heater," he said. "I can't fix it."

"You don't need to. You just have to break it," Abed said.

"Oh, yeah," Troy breathed. "That's right. And I can _definitely_ do that." He started to mess with the unit, unscrewing valves and removing pieces. He knew enough to be able to incapacitate the unit without screwing it up so much that it exploded. At least, he thought he knew that much.

"Done. I think," Troy said, standing up. "Now let's-"

The door slid shut. Something clicked in the doorknob.

Troy ran over immediately and tried the door. "Someone locked it!" he yelled. He squished his face against the glass and tried to look down the hallway to attempt to catch a glimpse of the culprit. The hall was empty. Troy sagged against the door.

" _Three minutes until detonation_."

Abed walked over and sat next to Troy on the floor. Neither of them said anything.

" _Two minutes until detonation_."

"Is it going to be worth it?" Troy asked. "Taking the risk?"

"We won't find out until later. At least until after the commercial break. It's possible that we won't even find out until the next episode. That's why it's a risk. But for the record, I think it's already worth it," Abed said. He turned to look at Troy.

"Me too," Troy said, surprising himself.

" _One minute and thirty seconds until detonation_."

"Abed... How do you know if someone is gay?" Troy asked.

Abed said nothing. For a moment, Troy worried that he'd broken Abed all over again. But Abed did answer, eventually. "I don't know," he said.

"I guess we can find out after all of this is over," Troy said. "In the afterlife, at this rate."

" _Fifty-nine seconds until detonation_."

"Is there time for one last movie reference?" Abed asked.

"Yeah." Troy turned and met Abed's eyes.

"I love you," Abed said. It was the movie reference to end all movie references. But Troy knew which one he meant.

"I know," Troy said, smiling.

" _Thirty seconds until detonation_."

"Isn't this the part where they always... you know...  in movies," Troy said, still holding Abed's gaze.

"Yes."

Troy leaned over just as Abed did, and somehow their lips met in the middle.

As kisses go, it was a fairly brief one. They separated when Abed's counter hit " _ten seconds until detonation_ ," and then Troy reached over and grabbed Abed's hand, squeezing it gently.

_"Five."_

_"Four."_

_"Three."_

_"Two."_

_"One."_

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

Troy woke up with a headache. He groaned and turned over, opening his eyes blearily and finding himself face to face with the exact same Star Wars poster as the one next to his bed. It took him a second to realize that it _was_ the Star Wars poster right next to his bed.

"What," he muttered, "Happened to me?"

"Troy?" Annie's voice called from outside the blanket fort. "Are you awake?"

"...Yeah," Troy said. He wrinkled his nose. He remembered smelling the worst scent he had ever experienced in his entire life. Apparently God had some idea of mercy, because Troy couldn't smell anything right now, and his memory of what exactly the stink bomb had smelled like had already faded.

Annie parted the blankets and entered the fort. "Abed!" she said. "You're up too?"

"Yes," Abed said. His voice came from below Troy, so apparently he was in his bed as well.

Annie squealed. "And you're talking again?" she asked. "Does that mean that-"

"You were explaining what happened to us," Abed reminded her.

"Oh, yeah. Shall I start at the beginning, or shall I start at the end? Ooh, I'll start at the beginning!" Annie clapped her hands together. "The two of you saved the school! You caused a hundred dollars or so damages to the school's heating system, but that's better than the thousands of dollars it would've taken to fix the damages from the stink bomb, so that's a net save on Greendale's part!"

"What happened to _us_?" Troy asked again. His head was already starting to clear.

"Oh, well, we rushed you to the hospital after we found you unconscious, but they said you both just needed to sleep it off. So we brought you back here."

"How many days have we been out?" Troy asked.

"Like two hours or so," Annie said.

"Only two hours? We didn't end up in comas?" Troy asked.

"Nope. Apparently, reports from The Great Stink Bomb of '02 have been greatly exaggerated. Either that, or City College has lost some of its game."

"So City College was behind everything?" Abed asked.

"Well, duh. Wasn't that kind of obvious? They're always the ones behind everything. Do you have any more questions? Because I really want to call everyone now and invite them over so that you can tell us _everything_ that happened!"

"Uh, no more questions," Troy said. He was not looking particularly forward to telling the rest of the group _everything_.

"Good! Come out when you're ready!" Annie said. "And I mean that in _all_ senses of the phrase," she added. Troy heard the blanket entrance rustle.

"Is she gone?" Troy asked.

"Yes," Abed said.

"Good, because I'm coming down." Troy sat up and crawled over to descend the ladder. He brought a blanket with him for good measure. Once his feet touched the ground, he padded over to the bottom bunk and took a seat besides Abed.

"So, uh," Troy started. "That happened."

"We're a little bit gay," Abed said.

"Yeah... I guess we are." Troy looked away from the Star Wars poster on the opposite wall and shifted his gaze back to Abed. "But I think I'm cool with that," Troy said.

"Cool. Cool, cool, cool." Abed paused. "Do you want to make out now?"

"Let's wait until later for that," Troy said hastily. "Annie's due to barge in again any second. How about we just-" Abed silenced him with a quick kiss. "-Do that, actually," Troy continued.

They kissed again, and pulled away just in time to do their handshake as Annie walked into the blanket fort trailing Britta and Shirley.

While they sat on the couch and recounted (almost) everything to the rest of the group, Troy and Abed held hands. And if anyone noticed, they said nothing. Probably because no one had ever said anything any of the other times Troy and Abed had sat on the couch holding hands.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

"Annie?" Troy called, knocking on her door. "Can I come in? I think I left my-"

Abed reached past Troy and opened the door. "Abed, that's kind of rude-" Troy protested. Then his mouth fell open, and words stopped coming out.

"Annie and Britta have been secretly sleeping together for months," Abed said, turning to look at Troy.

"It's not what it looks like!" Annie said in a panic, clutching the blanket up higher to cover herself.

"When Abed said 'sleeping together,' he meant only _sleeping_ ," Britta said. She didn't bother to try and cover up her pajamas.

"Since when?" Troy asked, his voice unusually high.

"Since that really cold night when Britta was sleeping over," Annie said.

"The tauntaun solution," Abed put in, nodding.

Troy turned towards Abed, horror dawning on his face. " _Lucky charms_ ," he whispered.

**Author's Note:**

> The Star Trek: Wrath of Khan reference in the maintenance room was also in part a reference to Henry Jenkins' concept of "[the glass](http://henryjenkins.org/2008/05/the_glass.html)," and the idea that "slash is what happens when you take away the glass."


End file.
